Supernova discovered in galaxy M66

A new Supernova was discovered in the galaxy known as M66 on May 28, 2016.

I thought I’d get an image of this new discovery for myself and logged into the remote iTelescope at the AstroCamp Observatory in Nerpio, Spain. This is a Planewave 17″ CDK with a focal length of 2929mm and an SBIG STL-11000M CCD.

This is a 10min luminance exposure taken on May 29, 2016 at 6:27pm EDT. Nothing fancy was done to this image other than stretching it (histogram) and circling the Supernova itself. The transparency that night in Spain wasn’t the best but enough I was able to take this image of the newly discovered Supernova.

The Atel website reported:

During the ongoing All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN or “Assassin”), using data from the quadruple 14-cm “Brutus” telescope in Haleakala, Hawaii, we discovered a new transient source, most likely a supernova, in the galaxy M66.

ASASSN-16fq (AT 2016cok) was discovered in images obtained on UT 2016-05-28.30 at V ~ 16.7 mag. We do not detect (V>17.1) the object in images taken on UT 2016-05-24.32 and before. An image obtained on UT 2016-05-28.47 by G. Bock confirms the discovery of the transient. This figure shows the archival DSS image of the host (left) and the G. Bock confirmation image (right). The red circle has a radius of 10″ and is centered on the position of the transient in the G. Bock image.

The position of ASASSN-16fq is approximately 69″ from the center of the galaxy M66 (z=0.002425, d=10 Mpc, via NED), giving an absolute V-band magnitude of approximately -13.4 (m-M=30, A_V=0.09). Properties of the new source and photometry are summarized in the tables below:

This discovery was also posted on the AAVSO website (American Association of Variable Star Observers), in the time sensitive alerts:

SN 2016cok (= ASASSN-16fq): Type IIP Supernova in M66

Discovery by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ATel #9091):
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=9091

“This figure shows the archival DSS image of the host (left) and the G. Bock confirmation image (right)”:
http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~assassin/followup/asassn-16fq.png

Spectroscopic classification (ATel #9093):
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=9093

Shawn Nielsen

My story began more than 40 years ago looking up at the Moon with a small telescope my Father had. Encouraged by my parents, who bought me my very own telescope, a 4.5″ reflector, I began to explore the night sky from my family home backyard. Today I do astrophotography from my home in Kitchener, Ontario and also with remote telescopes located in New Mexico and Australia. Some of my images have won awards and have been featured online and in magazines.